The following was e-mailed to me tonight from an audiophile in New York. It's about the best short "review" I've ever read in my 30 years of doing this. It's RAW and REAL, so here it is:

Quote:

Hey guys -

just wanted to send out a quick note about the zen open baffle speakers... in short... they fucking ROCK - man they are so crisp and transparent... the textures are so real and 'tangible' you can almost taste them... like - the instruments are really brought to life... they let you hear sooo deep into the recording - you can actually hear the most subtle nuances - like movements of the musicians, breath, just small details you'd only hear if you were right there with the artist when it was recorded... on each recording you'll hear several different transparent layers of sound, and you can listen to each one (because it seems like each layer is 'separated' in space... if that makes any sense, lol) or all of them together as a whole

i'm actually having a hard time getting back to work because i wanna just sit here and re-listen to every CD I own... at first when i plugged them in (before realizing i had to break them in) it was a bit harsh, and there wasn't any bass... I was like awww man... but after a couple days of listening, the bass is actually LOUD, CLEAR, AND JUST RIGHT.... The top end mellowed out nicely too. They're serioulsy SOOO GOOD.

I don't know how you guys do it, but you aren't selling speakers, you're selling MAGIC. You can go through your whole life not knowing what good sound ACTUALLY sounds like... until you hear speakers of this caliber... All my friends are blown away - i put them in the listening spot and they just sit there and trance out, jaws dropped to the floor... and on top of that, they can't believe there's NO SUBWOOFER!!!

I think I was telling you about this but recently I was in a super-high end showroom in NYC listening to gear (and speakers, specifically) that cost $20,000 - $50,000 and up... and there's ABSOLUTELY NO COMPARISON. Those expensive 'high end' speakers look all fancy and impressive but don't sound 10% as good as these. I think they're designed from the ground up with one purpose - so that rich moron's who can't tell the difference can impress their other rich friends!!

Anyway guys... great job (as usual) and I'll see you at this years DECFEST

You gota love it!

The most realistic sounding speakers we make.

Now I feel better about the tag line under the picture... I thought it was pretty accurate when I wrote it, and so far the feedback has confirmed it, but when I personally listen to them, I end up hopping up from my chair and walking in circles using similar affectionate profanities because I just can't believe how damn good it gets! This review captured that feeling spot on.

I'm 99% sure he's listening to them on a TORII MKII with a ZCD 160MKII - and a ZDAC-1 is soon to be joining the system... now that the resolution is there, it will be fascinating to hear what the ZDAC-1 brings to the table!